Rajiv Joseph

“[A] smart, savagely funny and visionary new work of American theater . . . Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, for all the killing and suffering it contains, is buoyed by the vitality of its imaginative scope. Violence is not after all the only human activity that can have far-reaching, unforeseen effects, shaping lives far into the future. Mr. Joseph’s richly conceived play reminds us that art can have a powerful afterlife too.” —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“I’m tempted to call [Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo] the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category. An ebullient synthesizer of world data, Joseph is not just alert to the fevered geopolitical madness surrounding us, he’s also endlessly inventive in finding bold theatrical metaphors to depict the extent of the depravity. Bengal Tiger marks the breakthrough of a major new playwriting talent.” —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times

“Whether they end poorly or well, relationships always leave a mark, like a new memory, etching a groove into our brains. That's a familiar idea, but Rajiv Joseph makes it feel fresh. In Animals out of Paper, he begins with a quirky comedy and transforms it into a melancholy reminder that close friends make the worst messes. His journey from one extreme to the other . . . is surprising and specific, pulling honest insights out of unusual situations." —Variety